Conservative frontbencher Nick Herbert, who was the first Tory politician to be open about his homosexuality, has said there has been a ‘definite change’ in the party's attitude towards homosexuals.
Speaking on the BBC’s Today programme on 17 February 2010, Mr Herbert said that while David Cameron was strongly pro-marriage, that was ‘in no way judgemental’ about homosexuals. He said the change in attitudes was ‘about what is right in the modern society’.
‘He [Mr Cameron] has also, I think very bravely, made a defence not just of marriage as an institution, but made it quite clear that is in no way judgemental about gay people.
‘Actually, he explicitly said in his first party conference speech that when he talked about the commitment between two people, he meant also commitment between a man and a man, and a woman and a woman,’ he said.
Mr Herbert, who is a Conservative MP for Arundel and South Downs, and Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, claimed that if the Tories won a majority at the next general election they would have at least 15 openly homosexual MPs – which he said would most likely be more than Labour.
‘I think David Cameron has taken the view that we need to broaden to appeal of the Conservative Party – that you can't be a party that is seeking to appeal to the whole country unless you are properly representative of the whole country; and that the position that we had been taking in the past towards gay people had been one that appeared to be hostile and that we were wrong,’ he said.
Mr Herbert is delivering another speech today at the Cato Institute in Washington, US. He will tell American Republicans that they should back homosexual 'rights' because support for homosexual equality is 'an essential element of modern conservatism'.
Last week, Mr Herbert accused the Football Association of ‘failing to do enough’ to confront homophobic abuse of homosexual players and supporters after the association dropped a television and cinema advertisement highlighting the behaviour.
In July 2009, Ben Bradshaw, Culture Secretary, and Chris Bryant, Minister of State for Europe, both openly homosexual Labour MPs, provoked anger from some Conservatives when they claimed that ‘a deep strain of homophobia still exists on the Conservative benches’ and that ‘if gays vote Tory they will rue the day very soon’.
At the beginning of this month, David Cameron had criticised the Church of England over its attitudes to homosexuality, calling for it to accept equal rights for homosexuals.
(See the CCFON report)
In January 2010, Mr Cameron said that schools should teach children that homosexuality is normal and that homosexual civil partnerships have as much value as marriage.
(See the CCFON report)
In an attempt to win the pink vote from the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats immediately issued a press release to refute Mr Herbert's claims.